If there is one area of common ground that Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump's fiercest defenders at the Capitol, can find with Democrats, it's his newfound distaste for political action committees.

Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, the combative second-term Republican from Florida announced his campaign would no longer accept PAC money. While making a similar hands-off pledge has become something of a badge of honor for Democratic candidates and junior House members, Gaetz says he's become the first GOP member of Congress to make such a promise — and he appears to be correct.

<p>End Citizens United, an increasingly powerful advocacy and campaign organization pressing to limit the influence of big money in politics, persuaded dozens of <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/corporate-pacs-and-democrats" target="_self">Democratic congressional candidates</a> two years ago to forswear contributions from corporate PACs — and more than 40 of them got elected. So far this year, 60 incumbents seeking reelection to Congress and 23 challengers or open seat candidates have done so, until now all of them Democrats. A handful of the party's remaining presidential candidates have done likewise.</p>
<p>Gaetz took PAC money when he won an open and reliably Republican seat covering the Florida panhandle four years ago, and again when he won his second term by 2-to-1 in 2018. He said he was abandoning the practice now because he no longer wanted to be indebted to special interests — and he said his pledge was yet another way of echoing the Trump approach.</p>
<p>"Remember our independence from special interests is our loyalty to America and the America First movement that President Trump began," Gaetz told CPAC, which hosts the biggest annual gathering of conservative activists.</p>
<p>A member of the Judiciary and Armed Services committees, Gaetz received $340,000 from PACs in his first term but just $43,000 last year. Overall, however his total campaign contributions have stayed about the same, with a much greater share of money coming from small-dollar donors this year — when his national profile has skyrocketed because of his vigorous defense of Trump during impeachment.</p>
<p>Gaetz criticized the longstanding practices of both parties in Congress to offer "committee assignments and leadership opportunities" to the lawmakers "most indebted to special interests."</p>
<p>"I've never turned tricks for Washington PACs, but as of today, I'm done picking up their money in the nightstand," Gaetz said, explicitly likening public service under the PAC donation process to prostitution.</p>

It's no surprise that Democrats in Congress rank better on democracy reform than their Republican counterparts, especially when progressive groups are keeping score. Over the last year, GOP members were largely opposed to Democratic efforts to get big money out of politics and expand access to the ballot box.

So the bipartisan chasm comes off as enormous in the first congressional scorecard produced by End Citizens United, a liberal political action committee that's focused mainly on shrinking money's influence over politics. And the report, released this week, suggests only rare and subtle degrees of disapproval for the blue team on Capitol Hill in 2019 — and only a few areas for faint praise of the red team.

All members were rated on whether they accepted contributions from corporate PACs. The 432 current House members were also scored on how they voted on the floor four times — including of course on HR 1, the comprehensive political process overhaul passed in March — and how many of five measures important to the group they cosponsored. Since the Senate took no votes on legislation connected to democracy reform, the senators in office last year were rated only on a quartet of co-sponsorships.

<p>To see how each member scored, read <a href="https://ecuactionfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2019-scorecard-final.pdf" target="_blank">the complete report</a>. But here are six of the big takeaways:</p><p><strong>The presidential candidates scored well.</strong></p><p>All five members still in the running for the Democratic nomination received perfect marks: Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. (So, too, did the three senators who have dropped out.)</p><p><strong>Such perfect scores were rare. </strong></p><p>Eleven Senators and 37 House members, all of them Democrats, checked all the boxes to earn an A+. This group included 22 House members in their first terms.</p><p><strong>Because not many Democrats reject business cash.</strong></p><p>Only a quarter of the Democratic senators (11 of them) and one-fifth of the party's House members (47) are doing one of the things End Citizens United thinks most important in an area when corporate money is flowing so freely into campaigns.</p><p><strong>Almost all the Republicans got failing grades.</strong></p><p>In fact, all 53 of the party's senators got a zero. So did 192 of the GOP members of the House last year. The remaining five each did one thing that got them credit with the group: </p><p>Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted for an overhaul of the <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/voting-rights-act" target="_self">Voting Rights Act</a>. Brian Mast of Florida voted for for an election security package. Francis Rooney of Florida and Phil Roe of Tennessee are rejecting corporate PAC money. (Both are retiring, though.) And John Katko of New York is cosponsoring an amendment to the Constitution to allow more limits on campaign fundraising and spending.</p><p><strong>The newest Republican is an outlier.</strong></p><p>Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey scored 85 percent for agreeing with the groups' position in seven of the 10 areas. But he's only been a GOP member since the start of the year. Last year he was a Democrat.</p><p><strong>Just four Democrats did not get an A.</strong></p><p>Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia were the only two Democratic senators in this category; she scored 82 percent and he got 71 percent. In the House, the lowest Democtaic scores were for Frederica Wilson of Florida (83 percent) and Collin Peterson of Minnesota (77 percent).</p>

Gatheru is the outreach manager at American Promise, which advocates for amending the Constitution to permit laws that regulate the raising and spending of campaign funds. She graduated two years ago from the University of Connecticut.

When young Americans come together, we can make a big impact. That's what we've seen throughout history. Alexander Hamilton and Betsy Ross were in their early 20s during the American Revolution. Frederick Douglass was 23 years old when he took the stage at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Alice Paul through her 20s led the fight for the 19th Amendment and women's voting rights.

And that's what we're seeing today in youth-led climate movements around the globe and the movement to end mass shootings here in the United States. But one issue that doesn't get as much attention sits at the root of our modern problems: big money in politics.

Money in our political system has completely eroded the promise of a functioning and just democracy. Due to a series of Supreme Court cases, corporations have the same rights as humans, special interests control Capitol Hill and democracy only works for those who can afford it. This is the dystopia my generation has inherited.

<p>Add that to crippling student loans, historic income inequality and looming environmental degradation, and our generation faces issues that money in politics continues to compound and exacerbate. The fossil fuel industry and others who benefit in the short-term from environmentally harmful practices have spent<a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/07/20/fossil-fuel-industry-has-spent-nearly-2-billion-on-lobbying-to-kill-climate-laws/" target="_blank"> more than $2 billion since 2000 to kill comprehensive climate change legislation</a>. As we witness ongoing gun violence in our nation,<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=q13" target="_blank"> the gun lobby continues to spend millions of dollars</a> a year to ensure gun control legislation stays off the table.</p><p>Big money forces are actively blocking measures to keep us and our planet safe. Nearly everywhere you find an issue perpetuated by government inaction, you can follow the money back to groups, businesses or organizations that have a vested interest in the status quo. </p>
<p>Until we address the root cause, though, transformative policies are doomed. That is why getting big money out of politics is the cause of our time.</p><p>At the third<a href="http://citizenleaders.us" target="_blank"> National Citizen Leadership Conference</a> in October, American Promise and more than 50 college students launched the<a href="https://www.americanpromise.net/cause-of-our-time-statement-of-principle/" target="_blank"> Cause of Our Time program</a> calling on young Americans to rally around the movement to end big money domination of our elections — and to do so as fervently as they are rallying around other pressing movements. Fixing our broken campaign finance system is a bold goal that takes a bold solution: a constitutional amendment.</p><p>American Promise is spearheading the cross-partisan push for a 28th Amendment to the Constitution. So far, 20 states and more than 800 towns and cities, representing 46 percent of the population, have called on Congress to pass such an amendment and send it to the states for ratification. Since 2018, American Promise has secured pledges from more than 250 candidates at all levels of government who commit to advance the amendment if elected. And at this year's Citizen Lobby Day, citizen leaders held more than 120 meetings with members of Congress to advocate for the amendment.</p><p>Our movement is strong; with an infusion of passion and energy from a base of young Americans, it will become unstoppable. Ratifying the 28th Amendment is the key to unlocking the potential of other youth-led reform movements and engaging Americans who are typically resigned to check out of the political process.</p>It is our goal to get 10,000 young Americans to sign on to support this movement by the end of 2019. If you're ready to join in,<a href="https://www.americanpromise.net/cause-of-our-time-statement-of-principle/" target="_blank"> sign the Cause of Our Time Statement of Principle</a> today.

Less than six months after winning seats in Congress partly on pledges to stay clear of corporate campaign cash, many new members of the House Democratic majority are violating the spirit if not the letter of those promises.

The swift movement away from their vows, and toward the special interests they previously spurned, is as clear a reminder as any of this truism of today's threatened democracy: The relentless drive for donations often plows through a politician's promises, including to finance their ambitions without the traditional reliance on the quid-pro-quo-implied generosity of big business.

At least 43 House Democrats, nearly one in five members of the caucus, have pledged not to accept donations from corporate political action committees, according to End Citizens United PAC, which seeks to reverse the Supreme Court's decision that largely deregulated the world of federal campaign finance. So have nine Democratic senators, several of them presidential candidates.

<p>But many of those lawmakers have decided they can rationalize a decision to forswear the corporate PAC money while at the same time seeking contributions from the lobbyists advocating for those companies' interests.</p><p>Politico details today <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/09/democrats-corporate-lobbyists-1259703" target="_blank">a series of fundraisers</a> hosted for House newcomers by the K Street denizens who press the cases for such corporate behemoths as AT&T, Comcast, Microsoft, Pfizer, Verizon, Wells Fargo, Boeing, Citigroup, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and United Airlines. Many of the lawmakers took seats away from Republicans last fall in districts sure to be highly competitive again next year. </p><p>And they are being joined by a growing roster who have promised not to take corporate PAC money as they seek Democratic nominations for Congress in 2020, but are happily accepting checks from business lobbyists.</p><p>"This campaign is about the people of Arizona, not corporate PACs and the mess they've created in Washington," Mark Kelly, the former astronaut challenging GOP Sen. Martha McSally, says on his website. But, according to an invitation obtained by The Intercept, he was feted at a fundraiser last month at Capitol Counsel, which represents ExxonMobil, JPMorgan Chase and Lockheed Martin.</p><p>Some Democratic lobbyists are trying to persuade candidates and members who haven't yet sworn off corporate PAC money not to do so. "We are trying to educate members about the importance of employee-funded PACs to the campaign finance system," National Association of Business PACs President Catherine McDaniel, who leads a trade group for corporate PACs, told Politico.</p>